<a href="http://itac.utah.edu/itac.utah.edu/125_House.html" target="_blank">125 Haus</a> is an ultra green home in Park City, UT, and is likely the most energy efficient home in the entire state. The house was built by University of Utah architecture professor Jörg Rügemer (owner of <a href="http://www.ruegemer.com/" target="_blank">ARJ</a>), who spent about a year refining the sustainable and energy efficient strategies for his home, which has been designed according to <a href="http://www.passiv.de/English/PassiveH.HTM" target="_blank">German Passivhaus</a> standards. With super thick and insulated walls, a compact layout and smart use of heating and lighting systems, the 125 Haus is 90% more efficient than a standard home. Read on to see pictures of our private tour of this modern mountain home.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Hailing from Germany, Rügemer was accustomed to a higher standard of efficient design for homes and planned to one day build the home of his dreams for he and his family. He set out to build a home an incredibly high performing home at market rate to prove that it was possible.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

After locating a good lot in Park City, UT he spent over a year designing and redesigning the 3 bedroom home to achieve the optimum efficiency for the right price.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Working with <a href="http://www.garbetthomes.com/" target="_blank">Garbett Homes</a> and radiant heating specialists he was able to come up with a design that relied on a high performance envelope and required only a small amount of energy to heat even in the dead of winter.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

The 2,400 sq ft home is three stories with a garage and studio on the basement floor. The ground floor features a large living room and the kitchen and dining room, while the upstairs holds three bedrooms, two bathrooms, built-in storage and the mechanical room.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

The large living room features a bright open design and windows work to frame views into the forest.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

The home's TV can be turned into a home monitoring system to see how well it is performing.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

The decor is clean, simple and very German - in fact, most of the appliances actually come from Germany and compactly fit into the kitchen.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Bright morning sun filters into the living spaces and heats up the concrete floor.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Solar passive design is one of the keys to the home's successful design and energy efficiency strategy.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Oriented to the south, large windows soak up as much sunlight as possible and a concrete floor serves as thermal mass to distribute heat through out the house.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

A staircase sits in the center of the house, divides the space and acts as a light well and natural ventilation stack chimney to move air throughout the house.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Radiant floors, sunlight, and HRV provide most of the heat needed for the house, but on cold days the efficient fireplace in the living room may need to be turned on.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

The R-60 walls are super thick achieved using both 11 inches of blown-in insulation and a 4-in thick insulation wrap around the exterior.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

125 Haus was designed in accordance with <a href="http://www.passiv.de/English/PassiveH.HTM" target="_blank">Passivhaus standards</a> although it won't be able to achieve certification because of a few technicalities.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Passive solar, a tight and heavily insulated envelope, and energy efficient systems are key to the home's performance.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

Rügemer has learned a lot about how the house operates since moving in and knows that things could be improved.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

For instance, he knows the master bathroom is colder than it should be.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

The basement doubles as Rügemer's studio.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

The garage was designed to accommodate two compact cars and not two large cars - this kept the price of the house down considerably.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

A lucky statue waves goodbye.

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125 Haus-AJR Atelier Jörg Rügemer

125 Haus is an ultra green home in Park City, UT, and is likely the most energy efficient home in the entire state. The house was built by University of Utah architecture professor Jörg Rügemer (owner of ARJ), who spent about a year refining the sustainable and energy efficient strategies for his home, which has been designed according to German Passivhaus standards. With super thick and insulated walls, a compact layout and smart use of heating and lighting systems, the 125 Haus is 90% more efficient than a standard home. Read on to see pictures of our private tour of this modern mountain home.